Birthday wishes for a girl.
Well, I did say that I would be posting for a second time later in the day, didn’t I? Anyway, celebrated Regina’s 19th birthday with her yesterday. Now I can safely say that she is one year older than me. Ha! Which means I am still young! Okay, okay. I shall not be mean. Anyway, having a birthday doesn’t mean that you’re one year older but rather, one year wiser.
Bought Regina a chocolate cake for her birthday. Meant for it to be a surprise, but I accidentally leaked it out when I was speaking to her the night before. Sighy, me and my big mouth. Upon hearing that, Regina remarked that she was touched that she was going to cry. Aww. That simply shows how much we love you as a friend, girl.
Serine and I gave her a lunch treat at Marche Movenpick, a restaurant with a market-style function and we went totally crazy with our orders. Regina suggested that we try the live oysters. I was a little hesitant at first because I never could cope with raw food well, and the mere thought of eating raw oysters sounded a little disgusting. I half-expected the oyster to start moving when I was eating it but of course, it didn’t.
Regina finally cut her birthday cake at our last stop, Bugis. (Yes, Bugis again. In case you were wondering. I really do have an affinity with that place.) We had a mini-party at Regina’s mother’s shop located in Bugis with several photographs taken.
On a different note, I am starting to develop a phobia towards automatic flushing systems. Yes, I mean those in the toilets. I don’t understand why, but the flushing system would never fail to go off when I bend down to pick items that I drop on the floor inside the cubicle. I tend to drop items pretty easily, and yesterday night I was bending down to pick up a tissue packet when the flushing system went off directly in my face. And no, my face wasn’t directly above the toilet seat in case you were wondering, but quite some distance away.
Even so, it didn’t fail to give me an unwanted shower of blessing. My first reaction was to jerk back in shock and yell “Pui!”
So those who were at the level two ladies toilet at Bugis Junction yesterday evening, if you heard a yell coming from a particular cubicle, I am sure you know who it is now. One thing for sure, I now have a hatred towards those automatic flushing systems. In fact, I personally feel that they are impractical since they only encourage laziness.
Why not train the people to flush the toilets after use instead?
The past two days have been nothing short of amazing. Although the sleepover had to be shortened to just two days, it was still enjoyable nonetheless. My friends and I had an amazing time fooling around with the spraycans of party streamers, watching videos and simply creating chaos and mayhem in my room.
This is the first time I remained awake throughout the entire night. Not a single wink of sleep, not at all. I have absolutely no idea how on earth we were able to last that long without any rest, considering how sleep-deprived yours truly is.
Yes, we did have an enjoyable time taking photographs in my room as well. A grand total of eighty photographs were taken, most of them using the self-timer function on my digital camera so that we could take group snapshots.
The highlight of the day? The sunrise. Early in the morning at 4:50a.m, lots of food-preparations went on in the kitchen as we got ready for our little picnic cum sunrise watching at the Bedok Reservoir opposite my home. We had stocked up on food supplies the day before, food such as ham, sausages and toasted bread. All we had to do was to pack them. Poor Regina couldn’t get out of bed and ironically, she was the only one who managed to grab half an hours’ sleep.
The place was still pitch dark when we reached there. We set up camp at a wooden bench by the reservoir and began our ‘picnic’. We decorated the area with colourful candles and sparklers and waited for the sun to rise. The wait was worth it though. The sunrise we saw this morning was too beautiful for words to describe.
We initially planned to take a stroll to the wooden pier at the other end of the reservoir after watching the sunrise, but the weather had other ideas. The sky soon clouded over, and we realised that we had to seek shelter back in my house before we got caught in the cloudburst. It wasn’t a moment too soon. The temperature dropped and the rain soon came pouring down.
Rainy weather would always be considered as the perfect weather for a snooze. So all three of us fell asleep, exhausted from the entire night’s happenings, and only awoke at 1:30P.M in the afternoon.
All in all, the sleepover was definitely an event to remember. Besides those photos, we had captured quite a few hilarious scenes using my video camera, and had a wonderful time laughing at ourselves as we replayed those videos on my television. It’s sad that Steffe couldn’t join us during the sleepover, though, because she had other commitments.
On a final note, I heard the following song this afternoon on the radio and fell in love with it immediately. ‘That’s the way it is’ by Celine Dion. I am not particularly a fan of hers since I prefer songs of the techno and euro genre, but for some reason, the tune caught my attention.
“When you want it the most there’s no easy way out
When you’re ready to go, and your heart’s left in doubt
Don’t give up on your faith, love comes to those who believe it
And that’s the way it is.
When life is empty with no tomorrow, and loneliness starts to call
Baby, don’t worry, forget your sorrow, cos’ love’s gonna conquer it all.”
Seems like I had caught on the Chinese New Year spirit rather quickily, as I had a rather good time at my grandmother(s)’ houses today. I often eschew Chinese traditions due to my agnostism towards these beliefs but Chinese New Year is still a time to be with my close relatives, no matter how skeptical I am about the whole occasion itself. Furthermore, this feeling of unity is contagious and soon, I found myself being caught up in all the festivities.
Was at my paternal grandmother’s house in the morning, and then at my maternal grandmother’s place for the rest of the day. The atmosphere at my maternal grandmother’s place was livelier though, due to the presence of my entire extended family. Well almost. Two of my cousins couldn’t make it as they are currently studying abroad in Australia. Naturally, there was much chatter since my maternal relatives are a talkative group of people.
I had absolutely no idea that my Uncle Edwin was a survivor of the tsunami disaster last December until my relatives were talking about it today. He happened to be in Sri Lanka on the 26th December, one of the most worst hit zones by the tsunami, so he managed to witness first hand the chaos and havoc that prevailed. All of us were stunned upon hearing the news, and my mother remarked that my uncle was definitely lucky to have survived the disaster. It so happens that Uncle Edwin loved to travel a lot, so natural disasters is something he has to deal with.
Due to the above, Uncle Edwin was referred to as “Mr Tsunami” for the entire day.
Yes, photographs were captured, albeit not as many as the previous year. I had mostly captured video clips instead of still images. Only two photos of the lot would be posted here, and the rest would be at the password protected gallery.
My younger cousin David is still as michievous as ever. Despite another year having passed by, David’s character is still the same as before. However, his feisty nature does provide some form of amusement for the rest of us at times. Most Singaporean children love to play with ‘bomb bags*’ during the Chinese New Year season, so David had purchased an entire box of them. He was playing with two bomb bags in the toilet when Uncle Ah Tee approached. Cheekily, David ’squeezed’ both bomb bags and threw them into the toilet bowl and left just as Uncle Ah Tee entered the loo.
A few seconds, we heard an explosion in the toilet, followed by the screams of Uncle Ah Tee. David then doubled over with laughter, and minutes later, a disgruntled Uncle Ah Tee emerged.
David got his retribution though. He hadn’t realised that the second bomb bag hadn’t exploded yet, but he unknowingly entered the same toilet that Uncle Ah Tee had been before. This time, the second bomb bag exploded, causing the water from the toilet bowl to spurt out directly into his face. He spend the next ten minutes rubbing his face with disinfectant and soap, and gargling his mouth continously.
Wishing one and all a Happy Chinese New Year.
*: Bomb bags are packets containing two smaller packets with vinegar and soda respectively. When pressed, these smaller packets would break, causing the vinegar and soda to mix. This brings about a chemical reaction which would cause the entire packet, or the bag, to expand and burst within five seconds.